COST-CUTTING plans for children's centres are facing a five-month delay, leaving Bradford Council £700,000 out-of-pocket.

It is pressing ahead with controversial cut-backs to its network of children's centres, in a bid to save £2.4 million a year.

But this savings programme has run into problems and delays, meaning £700,000 which should have been saved in this financial year now will not be.

The Labour-led authority has been branded "incompetent" by the opposition Conservatives, which had fought the cuts.

But Conservative children's services spokesman Councillor Debbie Davies (Baildon) said on the up-side, some families would be enjoying fully-staffed children's centres for a while longer.

Under the cost-cutting plans, Bradford Council is grouping its 41 children's centres into seven new clusters to slash management costs.

And it is also downgrading nine centres so they are no longer Ofsted-registered Sure Start children’s centres, but instead will be 'delivery sites', providing fewer services.

So far, one cluster around Keighley has been formed on schedule earlier this month.

Three more are on track to be created as planned in September, for Airedale and Wharfedale, West Bradford and the Lister Park area of Bradford.

But the final three, which should have been formed in south Bradford, east Bradford and the BD5 area of Bradford by October, have hit delays and will now not be ready until March next year.

Michael Jameson, strategic director of children’s services, said: "The final three clusters are now scheduled to launch in March 2016.

"This is later than planned because of complex property issues which we are working hard to resolve.

"We are continuing to offer services as usual for families in these three clusters."

The changes to the children's centres will see outside providers running many of the new clusters.

Mr Jameson said: "When management arrangements change for a centre, the leases on the buildings inevitably also have to change.

"The legal process does take time, especially when a children's centre shares its building with another community facility or when the land is owned by a non-Council provider."

Cllr Davies said she was worried how the uncertainty was affecting staff and families who used the centres.

She said: "I'm pleased things are delayed in a way, as it leaves things as they are.

"But as far as staff go, it does seem a shoddy way to treat people, with managers not knowing whether they can recruit people or not if they've got a vacancy.

"This is quite a hefty sum of money. We are forever being told we are not getting enough Government funding, and this is something that was planned for and costed out.

"It's like when you get builders doing a job and it overruns. It sounds a bit incompetent to be honest.

"If you go shopping and you overspend by a couple of pounds, you can usually save that elsewhere, but £700,000 is a lot of money to find.

"I would be interested to know where that's going to come from."

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said while the changes had to be made carefully, delays like this were "unacceptable".

She said: "The restructure of children's centres has got to be done carefully to ensure that families get the support they need.

"However, what seems to be happening here is that administrative delays and negotiations are causing undue delays.

"The money will have to be found from somewhere, so officers need to work quickly towards resolving these issues. Delays like this are unacceptable."

But Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, executive member for education, said changes of this sort took time.

She said: "The change in management arrangements for children's centres also means a change in lease arrangements.

"I'd love it all to go quicker but as anyone who has ever had conveyancing done on their house will know, when you start getting legal contracts sorted on a property, it takes time.

"It's not the kind of thing you can cut corners on."

The Council's latest financial reports show the authority is now on course for an overall overspend of £600,000 on its £400m budget for 2015-16.

Overspends on children's centres and other services have been partly offset by underspends in other areas.

The authority hopes to make further savings throughout the year, a meeting of the Council's ruling executive heard last week.